A Love of Reading and a Blog Name

by Sophie Epstein

Hi, I'm Sophie Epstein! I'm a twelve year old girl, and I'm the author of the book blog Mrs. Magoo Reads.

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There is no doubt in my mind that my mother inspired my love of reading. I remember my three-year-old self, sitting next to my mom, watching her write letters or combinations of them, and me sounding them out. Gradually these letters progressed to full words and then to sentences. By the time I was four, I could read Amelia Bedelia with no help at all. After that, I was off and running. I was reading everything that I could get my hands on.

Through it all, my mom encouraged me. Our home has always been crammed with books; even at a young age, the alphabet was part of my life. We had an alphabet puzzle, and all the letters were different colors. I played with it so often that, at the age of two, I could tell you which color each letter was- with my eyes closed. That was not my only claim to fame when I was two, however. I could also fluently recite the alphabet forwards... and backwards! Today, I can do it faster backwards than I can forwards (do you think this says anything about my personality?)

On road trips, I was given books to read to keep me busy. To this day, I still read when we travel, but the weight of our luggage gets significantly heavier as soon as I put in my books! When I was little, I also did a "book club" with my parents: my mom would read to me one night, then my dad the next. As soon as I finished a book with one of my parents, we would go out to dinner to discuss it. Some of the books we read were Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, A Wrinkle in Time, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Back to the present... My mom recently got her masters in English Literature, and currently runs book groups here at Book Passage. Her website can be found at www.literarymasters.net

As you know, my love of reading eventually became the motivation behind my book blog, Mrs. Magoo Reads. However, before I created it, I had to think of a suitable name. That's where my dad comes in.

Have you ever heard of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo? He's short, has a stubby nose, and has very poor eyesight. Despite his cane, he's always knocking into things. Well, my dad related his eyesight to reading glasses, and, because my blog would be about books, he suggested the name Mrs. Magoo Reads (Mrs. because I'm a girl). I immediately loved it.

I'm currently trying to come up with a good logo for Mrs. Magoo Reads (and if you have any ideas they would be much appreciated!) I would love to do something with the Mr. Magoo image, but there are too many copyright issues involved. How about something with a pair of large glasses acting as the two "O"s in Magoo?

If you have a blog, where did you come up with the name? If you don't have one, what would you name your blog if you were to have one? I'm also interested in knowing what your favorite childhood books were.